Watch out for the stamp price increase

The Royal Mail has announced that postage charges here in the UK will go up from 30 April 2012.

You can see the new charges here.

Since the increases are quite large you may want to consider stocking up on first and second class stamps this month. The stamps, which do not have prices on, like the ones you get in books of stamps will continue to be valid for the service named on them after the increase.

And don't forget to be careful when layering up your cards, so that they will 1) Fit in the envelope; and 2) Fit within the size guidelines for the postage levels.  I try to keep the layers to 1 or 2 if the cards are going to be posted, but it's hard sometimes...

The card I have to share with you today was created for a commission, and quite difficult to design something to incorporate the photography, allotments and walking theme that I was given.  I managed to get the latter 2 included but didn't want to overwhelm the card or cause issues with the postage so stuck to that.

However, I did manage to feature some of the DS Papers that you can get FREE this month with an order of £45 - see the link on the right of my blog for more details. 

The papers I have used here are from the Nursery Nest paper pack which has a 'baby' theme, but as you can see some of the papers are suitable for other occasions too.

I've created an Easle card type base from a piece of Lucky Limeade cut at 28 x 12.5cm.  The centre piece is the Scalloped Circle die cut from Calypso Coral and then in the centre I have adhere a Very Vanilla circle which I have run through the Square Lattice embossing folder.

The DSP from the Nursery Nest pack features in the background, mounted on a piece of Very Vanilla to make it stand out a little.  I've also used the same paper for the Decorative Label punch where I have inked and stamped the sentiments from the For My Family stamp set in Island Indigo.

The 2 big flowers are created with the medium sized flower from the Daisies #2 die - 3 flowers cut from Calypso Coral and layered up.  In the centre I have added a circle of So Saffron cut from the centre of the largest flower, which has been run through the Square Lattice folder.  The small flower is the smallest one from the die with the medium centre, created in the same way.

The finishing touches are some butterflies cut form So Saffron using the Beautiful Wings embosslit die and some Lucky Limeade ruffled ribbon.  Note that the laser cut walking boots are non Stampin' Up!